The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-01-16
A CASE OF DOUBLE.

more curious case than that of Arthur
Foxen. IL occurred twenty -five years ago,
and do not wish at this late day to revive
it To the modification of relatives who were
in no wise To blame for his wild career. /
will therefore not name the state in which
the singular events were enacted, though
many rea.iers viii name it for themselves
had been sheriff of - county about
six months when one morning an hour be-
fore daylight, a farmer rode up to the Jail
residence and aroused me with the informa-
ton that a murder had been committed at
a farm house about six miles away In
fifteen minutes l was ready to return with
him The neighborhood in which the muir
der occurred could he approached by two
different roads from the county seat, and
as i wanted to stop at the house Of one OF
my deputies we took the other road from
which the farmer had come. We were
three miles from the scene of the murder,
and were riding at gallop when a man in
the road ahead of Us on horseback flung
himself to the ground, climbed the roadside
fence, and made a across wide
meadow toward piece of woods.
OF course, the action aroused suspi-
cions. l was armed while the farmer
not. 1 left him to care for the three horses,
and was in chase of the man before he had
passed from sight. He was not q swift
runner, while was a fair one. 1 began to
gain on him at once, and he was hardly half
way across the meadow when he heard me
so close behind that he halted wheeled
around and fired at me with a single bar
relied bulldog pistol carrying q bullet al
most large enough for q musket. l was
not over twelve feet distant, but he missed
his target. L had come To a halt and had
my revolver in hand, but did not like to fire
upon him in return. When he that l
bsaI l,xy hi bull he Am he
empty pistol at my head, drew a murderous
looking knife, and called out that he would
not be taken alive. 1 went within six feet
of him and demanded his surrender, but he
made rush at me, and wa compelled to
fire at him in self defence. The bullet
struck his right wrist and passed through IL,
and he dropped his knife and staggered like
one shot in the body. 1 was in on him in a
second or two, and, without waiting to dis
cover how seriously he was wounded, I
bore him down and put on the handouts.
The victim of the murder was old far
mer named Stevens. His wife said that
she awakened about 2 o'clock in the
morning by "A noise in the room, and she
sat up in bed she saw a dark lantern on the
bureau and man searching the drawers
He turned toward her, and she screamed
out. Her voice avOke her husband and
he was getting out of bed when the intruder
a
a knife-the same he had threatened me
with. The husband fell back, to die al
most instantly, and the wife was 50 over
come with terror that she could not remem-
Der what happened in the next five minutes.
When she came to, the hired girl was
standing over the bed with q light in her
hand.
Ii was only after he had been convicted
and sentenced to be hanged that strange
phases began to crop out. He had carefully
concealed his identity. He had given the
name of Arthur FOxen, but we did not be
lieve il TO be his right one. He refused to
give his residence or the name Of his par
ents, and defied US to find out. During his
trial "A woman named Newhall of Cincin-
natl saw and identified him as her son. A
week later a man and woman from Louis
vile identified him as their son. and said
his name was Martin Benson. The prisoner
received both claimants il they were
what they professed to be, and they could
not be convinced that there must be q mis-
take.
The next strange thing was the apparent
death of the condemned. / looked into his
cell one day and found him, as l believed,
stone dead A doctor was called, and he
said 1T was case of heart disease. In
about twenty hours Foxen suddenly re-
turned to life, refused to answer any ques-
tions and called for and ate q hearty meal
l was to have the keeping of him about
seventy days before his sentence would be
carried out, and was naturally worried over
such a slippery fellow. As the Jail contained
only two other inmates, L put Foxen in .
corridor by himself. Five six days after
his restoration to life was sitting alone in
the front office, busy at some letters, when
1 heard soft footballs in the corridor Just
as 1 rose up, Foxen rushed past my door
and out of a side door, but the Jail was
surrounded by a high wall he could not get
away. i led him back by the ear and to
my utter establishment found the corridor
door as firmly secured AS when left it at
noon. Ii was doubly locked, and the heavy
bars were only three inches apart.
searched Foxen for key, but he had moth
ing, not even a bit of wire q stick. To
unlock that door required a key weighing
six ounces, and boy twelve years Of age
could have scarcely turned il. How did he
get out, Answer the question for yourself
l never could, though l devoted hundred
times the thought TO it that you will To
question him WAS useless. He simply pre-
served silence. After that l put a death
watch on him-a trusty man, well armed.
In a couple of weeks Foxen died again.
This time / called in four or five Of the
leading doctors. His heart had ceased &c
beat, his pulse WIS gone and his face took
ON that pallor which only death can bring
An electric battery was tried, but il pro-
duced no effect. The limbs became stiff and
rigid. and pins were thrust into the soles Of
his feet without bringing q Vince. Every
physician staked his reputation that it was
a case OF death, and went after the under
taker to prepare the body for burial He
was away, and could not look for him be-
fore morning. The body was left on the
bed in the cell and the man on watch re-
moved. II was about O'Clock in the even
ing when Fo~cn died. The turnkey slept
cot ii tiie other corridor. At mid
night he was awakened by a call. and he
went to the door of the other corridor to
find FOxcn standing there in good health,
and to hear him say:
Il wasn't on hand to supper. but I'm
hungry emf VIII take il now'
The outside public hears very little Of
what goes on in prisons i had no intention
o. permitting the world to know what q hu-
man curiosity had got hold of. i wrote q